For hundreds of years the Celtic warrior represented the quintessential barbarian warrior to the settled peoples of the Mediterranean. To the Romans, Greeks and other "civilized" people the Celts where a reoccurring nightmare that unpredictably erupted from darker Europe. It was a well earned reputation, and they repeatedly gave the Mediterranean world reason to fear them. Celtic warriors stood a head taller than their Mediterranean opponents and are described as having muscular physics. The Celtic warriors, or Gauls as they were called in the French part of their range, spiked their hair up with lime and wore horned and winged helmets to emphasize their large stature. Their attacks on the battlefield were fearless, wild and savage, but they were also skilled and deadly. As the Celts spread over their vast range, having conquered most of Europe at their height, their warriors developed different styles of warfare. In Spain they became master swordsmen accustomed to up-close combat with their short swords, in southern Gaul they developed impressive armor and preferred long swords and while in Britain they continued to fight from chariots that they had adapted to rough ground. However, whether in Asia minor or Ireland the Celtic warrior remained essentially the same, a capable warrior and someone to be feared. A fact the Romans never forgot, as it had been forever planted in their psyche when the young republic was sacked by the Celtic Warchief Brenus. The effect this had on the Romans changed history as they poured their energies into their military with single minded focus that would eventually win them an empire.

Pictured here is the Celt Army 2-figure Slashing Set.
Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Height: 2 inches

Release Date: July 2011

Historical Account: "Expanding the Empire" - The Roman conquest of Britain was a gradual process, beginning effectively in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, whose general Aulus Plautius served as first governor of Britannia. However, Great Britain had already frequently been the target of invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. In common with other regions on the edge of the empire, Britain had enjoyed diplomatic and trading links with the Romans in the century since Julius Caesar's expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, and Roman economic and cultural influence was a significant part of the British late pre-Roman Iron Age, especially in the south.

Between 55 BC and the 40s AD, the status quo of tribute, hostages, and client states without direct military occupation, begun by Caesar's invasions of Britain, largely remained intact. Augustus prepared invasions in 34 BC, 27 BC and 25 BC. The first and third were called off due to revolts elsewhere in the empire, the second because the Britons seemed ready to come to terms. According to Augustus's Res Gestae, two British kings, Dumnovellaunus and Tincomarus, fled to Rome as suppliants during his reign, and Strabo's Geography, written during this period, says that Britain paid more in customs and duties than could be raised by taxation if the island were conquered.

By the 40s AD, however, the political situation within Britain was apparently in foment. The Catuvellauni had displaced the Trinovantes as the most powerful kingdom in south-eastern Britain, taking over the former Trinovantian capital of Camulodunum (Colchester), and were pressing their neighbours the Atrebates, ruled by the descendants of Julius Caesar's former ally Commius.

Caligula planned a campaign against the British in 40, but its execution was bizarre: according to Suetonius, he drew up his troops in battle formation facing the English Channel and ordered them to attack the standing water. Afterwards, he had the troops gather sea shells, referring to them as "plunder from the ocean, due to the Capitol and the Palace". Modern historians are unsure if that was meant to be an ironic punishment for the soldiers' mutiny or due to Caligula's derangement. Certainly this invasion attempt readied the troops and facilities that would make Claudius' invasion possible 3 years later (e.g. a lighthouse was built by Caligula at Boulogne-sur-Mer, the model for the one built soon after 43 at ancient Dover).